OTTAWA — Average Canadians support a controversial government bill that would deny tax credits to offensive films and TV shows, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Wednesday.

Appearing before the Senate banking committee studying Bill C-10, Flaherty stated he was in a ‘stewardship position’ with respect to how taxpayers’ money is spent.

‘There are many demands in Canadian society and many needs that need to be addressed. One of them is not the financing of movies or videos depicting extreme violence, hate or pornography,’ he added.

The bill is ‘the will of the people of Canada,’ he said of Bill C-10, which would grant heritage minister Josée Verner the power to deem film and TV productions ‘contrary to public policy’ and ineligible for federal tax credits.

The creative community, which appeared earlier this month before the committee, says these guidelines amount to censorship.

The debate on the hotly debated bill started with Flaherty focusing on non-resident trusts and foreign investment entities by Canadians, which are also affected by Bill C-10. He appeared eager to avoid talk of censorship, instead focusing on how these investment vehicles should not be used by Canadians to obtain an unfair tax advantage.

But Liberal Senator Yoine Goldstein started a long sparring match with Flaherty over the provisions affecting the film and TV industry, challenging Flaherty’s description of a ‘divided industry.’

‘We haven’t heard any other [divided] views from the industry. We’ve heard other views from other people, but not from the industry,’ Goldstein noted.

The senator noted provisions excluding pornography from tax credits have been in place since 1972 and hate propaganda is illegal under the Criminal Code. He also contested the minister’s contention that Canadian filmmakers could produce controversial movies on their own dime, since financing is nearly always dependent upon the banks, which put up money based on the certainty of the tax credits.

‘That’s like saying a black person isn’t being discriminated against in a restaurant [that refuses to serve him] because he can go to another restaurant,’ noted Goldstein.

Flaherty shot back, ‘That’s nonsense,’ and reiterated his message about the sanctity of taxpayers’ money.

Goldstein then proceeded to hound the finance minister over why the provision wouldn’t apply also to foreign movies filming on location in Canada.

Gerard Lalonde, Finance Canada’s director of tax legislation division, tax policy branch, noted that the investment ceiling was higher for foreign location productions to access the tax credits. ‘These are [foreign] films with a high cost, and therefore are looking to the mass market, not pornography,’ he added.

Goldstein wouldn’t let that lie, noting that was just Lalonde’s opinion and was not backed by experience in the cultural arena.

Just before Flaherty left after his more than hour-long appearance before the committee, Liberal Senator Pierrette Ringuette criticized the minister for not acknowledging the issue was the ‘ambiguity’ around how the bill proposed defining pornography, hate propaganda and extreme violence. She said the industry agreed that tax credits should not go toward illegal pornography, but that it was seeking clarity on how standards would be set.

Noting a lot of money was being handed over to the government on Wednesday — the deadline for filing last year’s tax returns — Flaherty concluded by stating it was his job to ensure it was used for proper public policy.